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Celebrity Scandal Roundup By Robin Barnes

With the debt ceiling crisis left unresolved and millions of protestors taking to the streets to Occupy McPherson Square and its equivalent all over this great nation, you would imagine that the tabloid stalking of celebrities might cease while a spotlight is shined on Wall Street Barons. Oh well, dare to dream. The Washington Post believes that entertainment is not merely commentary and cutting edge coverage of fashion, lifestyle and entertainment venues, but invasion of celebrity privacy. The hubris that it takes to report that Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore need to escape rumors that their marriage is under stress by releasing an “official” statement about it, goes to the heart of why democracy is in peril today.

Global media empires run by those who provide “convenient” lists of the private moments of A list celebrities along with photos to “share with your co-workers,” instead of listing the 5 largest factors contributing to US debt, is a sad commentary on the state of the laws governing a free press that delights in abusing its freedom. Matter of fact descriptions of the stalkerazzi crashing a weekend camping trip and (by implication) fabricated and defamatory headlines about its purpose with photos or footage of the couple seeking to banish the intruders is what the Post views as entertaining. Blow by blow reports of tweets, passages that read like solicitation of the contents of any (presumably private) direct messaging, can only end in a resounding for-your-own-good flourish: the reporters state that if the reports are classic defamation, then their primary option is to break their silence. Of, course they would advise a method that turns their private lives into a public debate. Their public statement should be: it’s none of your damn business. A law suit for damages for the public disclosure of private facts is more to the point. Alas, the Post might then find it worthwhile to make its last “required” post of Demi/Ashton news a bullet-point synopsis of how the court battle has progressed and what privacy and false light defamation actually mean under the laws of the United States of America.